Cassandra's Day Is Nigh.

Anyone remember this?

If you bother to (re)watch the whole thing, note that Obama's core point is that the Republican Party has so embraced partisanship and division that it is about to paint itself into a corner where compromise becomes impossible.

And now here we are, the nation on a precipice. Obama's warning comes true. He tried. Really, really tried to point out to them the dangers of the road they were taking. But there are enough true-believer types in office now that they ignored him.

I hope they enjoy the suffering they themselves will feel along with all of us. Damn them all to hell.

ETA:

Gods, even such morally twisted creatures as Andrew Sullivan are beginning to see the light.

Republican Insanity - The 2012 Budget Edition

Yes I know the title is recursively redundant. I just want you to marvel at the yawning depth of delusion in the following statement:

"Our budget will help spur job creation today, stop spending money we don’t have, and lift the crushing burden of debt that threatens our children’s future."

Let's just take a moment to deconstruct that, shall we?

Our budget will help spur job creation today...

You can't spur job creation without hiring people. I don't know what planet Mr. Boehner is from where it is common practice to hire people without paying them, but here on Terra payment is due for labor performed. So if you don't spend money, you can't spur job creation. Which leads us to:

...stop spending money we don’t have...

Why don't we have any money, Mr. Boehner? Seriously, this is not a rhetorical question. WHY DON'T WE HAVE ANY MONEY? Could it possibly be that twelve years of Republican spending priorities (mostly undiluted or ineffectively opposed) and fanatical, we'll-shut-down-the-government opposition (when you've been the minority) to Democratic policies have BROKEN THE ECONOMY?! Could that be it? Of course not, because effect does not follow cause in magical-thinking Christopath Conservative Land!

...and lift the crushing burden of debt...

*sigh* Fastest possible way for a nation to run up a debt- fight a war without raising the taxes necessary to pay for it. Especially a long war. Even better, let's fight two!

...lift the crushing burden of debt that threatens our children’s future."

To understand my objection here, one needs to understand that the United States has seen economic times similar to those we have and are suffering now. Many times. Take a sec to click this handy little Wikipedia link to the history of recessions in the United States. Scroll slowly down the page, taking a good hard look at the column marked Time since previous recession. See a pattern?

I won't belabor the point - the moment when liberal economic policies gained the upper hand was the moment when the cycle of recessions slowed and became less severe. Now, 30 years of radical, reactionary, Randian greed has resulted in the most severe recession in one hundred years. So bad, it's called the Great Recession.

If you know how we actually got out of the Depression (rather than the lies the conservatives tell) you now know why Boehner's lying. He has no interest whatsoever in anything save enriching his exceedingly rich donors.

I shouldn't be surprised. Really, I shouldn't. The Republicans have specialised for a decade now in promulgating lies, and their language is now so tangled it is a solid mass of dishonesty as dense as depleted uranium. They don't have many more orders of magnitude to go before reaching rhetorical neutronium. Before Reagan, we either forcibly committed such people as insane or jailed them as fraudsters, depending on whether they stood to profit from their ravings. Anyone doubt why?

SOTU Liveblog Edition 2011

This year, for the first time in a good long time, your humble Swordfighting Pundit is going to completely skip the State of the Union.

Between the increasingly-brutal grind any currently-employed person is experiencing with neverending pay cuts or lack of a COLA raise plus the ever-rising cost of living, yours truly spends damn near all his energy just providing for house and home. And even then, we're spending more and more time financially under water, and less and less time able to pay for anything.

I enjoy listening to Obama's speeches, but unless he's planning on outlining a plan to force employers out of the positively feudal spiral of ever-greater demands for dwindling renumeration, I just can't get interested.

I know that I've become one of the emogressives demanding magic ponies. I can't help feeling that corporate power has become so overwhelming that the only path is downward into dystopia before things get any better. And I know our President isn't about to offer a way out- he means well, but one person cannot right the course of a nation in an instant; it's possible that our course cannot be corrected at all, now.

I'm not done fighting for improvement- I call, I write letters, I vote. But I have no money for anything but survival, and neither does anyone else but the wealthy, and this is exactly the way those malefactors want it. Because in politics, only money talks in any way that matters.

Finally.

Live from inside the lion's den, the return of Barack Obama.

Answering hostile questions during the House Republican Retreat on C-SPAN, Obama was obviously the smartest guy in the room. He knew all the facts and figures. (Which is something I always admired about Bill Clinton.) Nothing fazed him. He stood up in front of teabagging GOP and spanked refuted them for an hour and a half.

We can forget the "can't speak without a teleprompter" meme too. (I also notice he's losing the habit of saying "ahhh" between sentences when speaking off the cuff.) Wingnuts are reduced to counting how many times he used the word "I" (while answering questions about his policies and decisions.)

This is the man I voted for in 2008.

Welcome back, Mr. President, sir.

The Things Teabaggers Refuse to See

Found on Craiglist- saved for posterity...

I'm informed this was originally authored by Fred Clark, at slacktivist.

WHY you keep getting screwed-- MR. (Tea Party Patriot)


Hey you. You there in the Glenn Beck T-shirt headed off to the Tea Party Patriot rally.

Stop shouting for a moment, please, I want to explain to you why you're so very angry.

You should be angry. You're getting screwed.

I think you know that. But you don't seem to know that it doesn't have to be that way. You can stop it. You can stop it easily because the system that's screwing you over can only keep screwing you over if you keep demanding that it do so.

So stop demanding that. Stop helping the system screw you over.

Look, you can go back to yelling at me in a minute, but just read this first.

1. Get out your pay stub.

Or, if you have direct deposit -- you really should get direct deposit, it saves a lot of time and money (I point this out because, honestly, I'm trying to help you here, even though you don't make that easy Mr. Angry Screamy Guy) -- then take out that little paper receipt they give you when your pay gets directly deposited.

2. Notice that your net pay is lower than your gross pay. This is because some of your wages are withheld every pay period.

3. Notice that only some of this money that was withheld went to pay taxes. (I know, I know -- yeearrrgh! me hates taxes! -- but just try to stick with me for just a second here.)

4. Notice that some of the money that was withheld didn't go to taxes, but to your health insurance company.

5. Now go get a pay stub from last year around this time, from January of 2009.

6. Notice that the amount of your pay withheld for taxes in your current paycheck is less than the amount that was withheld a year ago.

That's because of President Barack Obama's economic stimulus plan, which included more than $200 billion in tax cuts, including the one you're holding right there in your hand, the tax cut that's now staring you in the face. Republicans all voted against that tax cut. And then they told you to get angry about the stimulus plan. They didn't explain, however, why you were supposed to get angry about getting a tax cut. Why would you be? Wouldn't it make more sense to get angry at the people who voted against that Obama tax cut?

But taxes aren't the really important thing here. The really important thing starts with the next point.

7. Notice that the amount of your pay withheld to pay for your health insurance is more than it was last year.

8. Notice that the amount of your pay withheld to pay for your health insurance is a lot more than it was last year.

I won't ask you to dig up old paychecks from 2008 and 2007, but this has been going on for a long time. Every year, the amount of your paycheck withheld to pay for your health insurance goes up. A lot.

9. Notice the one figure there on your two pay stubs that hasn't changed: Your wage. The raise you didn't get this year went to pay for that big increase in the cost of your health insurance.

10. Here's where I need you to start doing a better job of putting two and two together. If you didn't get a raise last year because the cost of your health insurance went up by a lot, and the cost of your health insurance is going to go up by a lot again this year, what do you think that means for any chance you might have of getting a raise this year?

11. Did you figure it out? That's right. The increasing cost of health insurance means you won't get a raise this year. Or next year. Or the year after that. The increasing cost of health insurance means you will never get a raise again.

That's what I meant when I said you really should be angry. That's what I meant when I said you're getting screwed.

OK, we're almost done. Just a few more points, I promise.

12. The only hope you have of ever seeing another pay raise is if Congress passes health care reform. Without health care reform, the increasing cost of your health insurance will swallow this year's raise. And next year's raise. And pretty soon it won't stop with just your raise. Without health care reform, the increasing cost of your health insurance will start making your pay go down.

13. I wish I could tell you that this was just a worst-case scenario, that this was only something that might, maybe happen, but that wouldn't be true. Without health care reform, this is what will happen. We know this because this is what is happening now. It has been happening for the past 10 years. In 2008, employers spent on average 25 percent more per employee than they did in 2001, but wages on average did not increase during those years. The price of milk went up. The price of gas went up. But wages did not. All of the money that would have gone to higher wages went to pay the higher and higher and higher cost of health insurance. And unless Congress passes health care reform, that will not change.

Well, it will change in the sense that it will keep getting worse, but it won't get better. Unless the problem gets fixed, the problem won't be fixed. That's kind of what "problem" and "fixed" mean.

14. Sadly for any chance you have of ever seeing a raise again, it looks like Congress may not pass health care reform. It looks like they won't do that because they're scared of angry voters who are demanding that they oppose health care reform, angry voters who demand that Congress not do anything that would keep the cost of health insurance from going up and up and up. Angry voters like you.

15. Do you see the point here? You are angrily, loudly demanding that Congress make sure that you never, ever get another pay raise as long as you live. Because of you and because of your angry demands, you and your family and your kids are going to have to get by with less this year than last year. And next year you're going to have to get by with even less. And if you keep angrily demanding that no one must ever fix this problem, then you're going to have to figure out how to get by on less and less every year for the rest of your life.

16. So please, for your own sake, for your family's sake and the sake of your children, stop. Stop demanding that problems not get fixed. Stop demanding that you keep getting screwed. Stay angry -- you should be angry -- but start directing that anger toward the system that's screwing you over and taking money out of your pocket. Start directing that anger toward fixing problems instead of toward making sure they never get fixed. Instead of demanding that Congress oppose health care reform so that you never, ever, get another pay raise, start demanding that they pass health care reform, as soon as possible. Because until they do, you're just going to keep on getting screwed.

And it's going to be that much worse knowing that you brought this on yourself -- that you demanded it.

Thanks for your time.

P.S. -- I didn't mention this because I'm trying here to be as patient with you as I can, but you might also want to keep in mind that in addition to screwing over yourself and screwing over your family and screwing over your own children by demanding that Congress oppose health care reform so that you will never, ever see another pay raise, by doing that you're also demanding that I never, ever see another pay raise, which means that you're also screwing over me, and my family, and my children. Not to mention the millions of poor and uninsured and uninsureable people I didn't even mention above because they don't seem to matter at all to you. And for that, let me just say the only appropriate thing that can be said to someone so determined to do direct, tangible harm to the welfare of my family: Fuck you, you fucking moron.



Location: Tea Party Patriot

SOTU Liveblog 2010

I predict this will be very, very painful. Fortunately, I'm well-supplied:
Fifth of Bushmills? Check
Sack of shake? Check
Sleeping pills? Check

Fortunately, I probably won't need ALL of that. After all, I survived W's addresses, and those were so despair-inducing and insane that the word black isn't dark enough. More like fuligin.

1755 on station and ready to roll. The Supremes are entering now.

1803: I love MSNBC, but they need to STFU. Especially Matthews.

1806: And the traditional announcement.

1810: Love the booing on the Republican side of the house. How long before someone blurts out another "You lie!"?

1812: One last try at bipartisanship? Or one last warning? We shall see.

1817: First applause line. A weak line, and a kabuki ovation.

1818: "We all hated the bank bailout." Wow.

1820: And the Republicans sit through the applause to put a fee on banks.

1821: And the GOP sits AGAIN on Obama's tax cuts.

1824: And again the partisan divide over the stimulus bill.

1826: Universal applause for the jobs bill. Whatever that will mean.

1827: 30 billion for community banks. That one's gonna be a fight.

1828: Small business tax credit. Eliminate capital gain on small business.

1830: Recommendations for creating a green economy, and cut the tax breaks that encourage outsourcing.

1831: "I want a jobs bill on my desk without delay."

1834: "I'm not interested in punishing banks. I'm interested in protecting our economy."

1836: Wow, he had the courage to propose nuclear power.

1837: Funny, he's pitting the House against the Senate.

1839: Sets a goal to double exports over five years.

1844: This is the most policy-dense SOTU I can remember. If I tried to summarize each point I'd be basically taking dictation.

1845: "We still need health insurance reform."

1847: And he lays out the motivations for why he's doing HCR, and also the benefits of the plan as it stands. OK, I'm easy for this guy, but he hasn't quite won me back over yet.

1848: This is why I love Obama. He takes responsibility!

1849: OK, now he's won me back.

1853: Here comes the spending freeze.

1855: The Senate blocked his fiscal commission, so he's creating that committee by Executive order.

1858: "Let's try common sense!" Whoa.

1900: Holy shit he is knocking heads all over the place. The GOP. The Supremes. The Dems. ALL over.

1902: "What frustrates the American people is a Washington where every day is election day." Damn right!

1908: Combat troops out of Iraq by end of August.

1909: Forgive me for being bored as he relates the fricking obvious. Soldiers are nothing but political props to Versailles. Maybe not to Renegade, but the culture won't change overnight.

1911: The security issues get tons of applause, but the right will still use them relentlessly, posturing to make Obama look weak.

1915: OK, DADT is on the block this year. And so is the equal pay issue. And immigration reform. These are those ugly votes for the GOP that he intends to force.

1918: Barack Obama GETS IT. Oh yes he does.

1922: And he's done. Republican Response coming up.

1930: Virginia Gov McDonnell

1932: So far he's said nothing exceptional.

1932: The gov't is trying to do too much. Too much debt. We must restore the "proper, limited role of government at every level".

1933: "The excessive growth of government..." funny, where were you these past nine years?

You know what? I'm not willing to dignify these bullshit talking points with publicity.

I do love his live audience. They've cut a whole minute out of his speaking time already.

GOP politicians simply refuse to act as if they get habeas corpus, preferring instead to demagogue and sow fear.

Perfidy, thy name is Trijicon

By way of Rachael Maddow (may she forever and happily reign atop the world of factual and responsible reporting) and driftglass, we learn that a rifle scope manufacturer has been imprinting Bible verse citation on the scopes they sell to the United States military. This despite DoD regulations absolutely forbidding the promotion of any one religion. Period. Ever.

And we also learn that when asked about it, the company responded that they're proud they're doing it, that they have no plans whatsoever to stop, and that one group that it publicizing the problem with the practice is clearly "not a Christian organization". What the hell does this genetic fallacy red herring "rebuttal" have to do with the issue?

You know, there's almost nothing we can say to these people. If they think it's perfectly OK to give the Muslim world proof that America is on a Crusade, then they are clearly so insane that the only possible response is to dust off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure. How many Crusades were there, all told? And yet Jerusalem, let alone Eretz Yisrael, is not controlled by Christians, is it? How about the rest of the Middle East? Nope, a minority there, too.

I have just one question for the company: How many Muslims is it OK to kill? Keep in mind that if there is a Heaven, your answer will almost certainly go into your permanent record for determination of your fate. For eternity. Sure you want to take the chance of answering anything other than "none"? Oh, and are you sure that citing the Holy Book on weapons of war isn't blasphemy?